While still living in Shanghai I had to visit some more tourist attractions, so I went to Yu yuan some time ago. Yu garden is located in the old city of Shanghai, surrounded by some horrible souvenir shops where Chinese people try to sell you cheap Made in China stuff with a profit margin about 90% high.

The garden itself is beautiful and more “Chinese looking” unlike most of Shanghai. I went during the week at afternoon and it wasn’t very crowded, I don’t know about weekends and holidays though. The admission fee was a couple of euros and well worth it.

There were a lot of different kinds trees and plants, including bamboos of course.

Seeing so many ponds with koi fish in China made me curious about what happens to them during the winter. I looked it up and apparently they survive even snow and ice.

In China dragons symbolize power, strength and all kinds of good things. I’ve heard that a lot of parents want their child to be born in the year of the dragon. I was one of the lucky kids.

The garden has also many Chinese style buildings between the trees and plants.

Right outside the garden the area is packed with foreign and chinese tourists, worth walking through but personally I prefer shopping on eBay.